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TheSkimm, a
millennial-focused membership media company, wants to remedy this by mobilizing its users for the 2018 election. Using its brand identity, built through its popular flagship newsletter, a newly
introduced app and a team of Skimm’bassadors, the company aims to get 100,000 people to vote in the midterms.

To jumpstart the effort, TheSkimm flew 28 women — Skimm’bassador
vote captains — to New York last week to take part in a two-day conference. The conference was part of the company’s “No Excuses” campaign, which focuses on issues like
immigration and healthcare by providing key information on TheSkimm’s site.

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The "Skimm'bassador vote captains left the weekend with tools to take back to their communities to
encourage people to vote in a nonpartisan effort.

“We want to make sure people feel informed. We want to make sure they feel heard. One of the biggest ways we can do that is by making
sure they get out there to vote:” TheSkimm co-founder Danielle Weisberg told USA Today.

The campaign is reminiscent of MTV’s Rock the Vote, founded in 1990.
Though Rock the Vote relied heavily on celebrity involvement, it also used MTV’s brand to ignite the 18-24 voter base across the country.

In 2008, the campaign registered 2.6
million voters, making it the largest nonpartisan drive in the nation’s history.

What both of these efforts require is a brand that is both recognizable and trusted. One that
also knows how to engage its fans toward action.

Like Rock the Vote, TheSkimm’s campaign relies heavily on volunteers, including those who gathered in New York. Through
building a prior stable of Skimm’bassadors, the brand had already created an exclusive group among its users.

Choosing vote captains from that group is a savvy move, bringing
even more cache to a position that, in itself, uses readers to promote TheSkimm brand voluntarily.

As people become more connected across platforms, whether through apps, social media or
smart speakers, a brand’s ability to engage them is essential, particularly in a participatory democracy.